Caddie Confidential

he thing that struck me when I cracked this book open was that from the first paragraph, the reader is immediately drawn into the exclusive world of professional golf. At first glance, the book may not appeal to those who aren’t interested in the sport, but once you actually decide not to judge the book by its cover, you get to see the excitement that comes with following golf. For those of you who don’t necessarily view golfers as celebrities, the accounts in this book are akin to reading the memoirs of, say, Britney Spears’ or Lindsey Lohan’s personal assistants or bodyguards; someone who is with the “celebrity” day in and day out, seeing a side of them that the public is unable to. In other words, they give us all the juicy stuff.

Even better, they provide tips on how to get into, and stay in the business of caddying, otherwise known as “the best kept secret in the world”. Each chapter begins with a tip in the form of a story about how one particular caddie got started and how their career progressed from that point. The story is then followed by several quotes from professional caddies, such as Ray Reavis and Jeff Burrell, on how they too got started, ended up getting fired, or just simple words of wisdom when it comes to dealing with the player you work for. For example, Chapter Three, entitled “Not Like The Old Days”, begins by describing how old-time caddies could hang around a parking lot and find a player to work for within no time in order to pick up some extra cash. However, the caddie career has come a long way since then, a long glamorous way. As explained in the chapter, caddies used to be lucky if they were able to make $200 a week, in addition to the ten percent cut from their player. If the player came in first place, the prize was $50,000, meaning that the caddie would get $5,000; but only one out of 156 players/caddies could get that. These days, last place alone gets $50,000, so you can only imagine what a caddie who works for a winning player can stand to make. Hilton “J.J.” James says in this chapter, “Now caddies have rental cars, fly on corporate jets with their players, and stay at the Ritz-Carlton. It used to be that after our round we’d all meet up at the local dive bar and dissect the day’s events. Now the young caddies hurry back to their hotel rooms with their expensive new laptops to check on scores and stocks” (58-59).

Let’s move onto the juicy stuff, the stuff you wouldn’t know from just watching the game on TV. Those of you who think that Dennis Trixler seems like a down to earth, calm and collected guy might be surprised to find out that he has a bit of a temper. Luckily, through this book, we get to see why and how it plays out: “A long time ago I was working for Dennis Trixler in Mississippi. We were playing with Mitch Adcock. Both Dennis and Mitch were sponsored by Titleist and used the same equipment. We were on the 4^th hole par-3, 184 yards to the pin. Trixler asked me for my advice. ‘It’s a 7 iron,’ I said, ‘but you need to hit it hard.’ ‘No, it’s a 6 iron,’ he said. ‘All right, you’re the boss.’ So he took out the 6 iron and hit it well over the green. As we walked up to the ball he asked me, ‘Why didn’t you tell me to hit that 7 iron?’ ‘Dennis, I did.’ ‘Well,’ he responds, ‘you weren’t firm enough with me.’ He proceeded to chip it up on the green with a putt to save his par. He missed the short putt and then he was really pissed off. He walks over with his putter in hand and starts beating the shit out of his bag. I mean, he’s really mad and he’s giving it to this poor bag. He’s hitting it with the club, he’s kicking it with his cleats, he knocks it over and continues to pound on it. He literally rips this bag to shreds. Suddenly he stops. I figured he’d gotten all of his aggression out and was ready to move on. Nope. All of a sudden he realized he’d been beating the wrong bag. It was Adcock’s Titleist bag that was lying there in pieces. No problem for me though. I had to carry Trixler’s bag for the next 14 holes while the other caddie was stuck carrying Adcock’s bag for the rest of the day with both arms wrapped around it so his clubs, balls and tees wouldn’t fall out” (109-110).

Liked that story? The book ends with a chapter called “Unforgettable Moments”, which is filled with gems such as that one, allowing the book to end just as strongly as it began. It will not only keep your interest, but also provide insight on how to get started and be a part of “the best kept secret in the world”.